Nourse v. Riddell’s Empirical Analysis
1956
Citation profile
6 federal appellate · 4 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 19 later decisions — most recently August 1978
6 federal appellate · 4 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Applies 26 U.S.C. § 811
Relies on Ithaca Trust Co. v. United States · Sinclair Refining Co. v. Jenkins Petroleum Process Co. · United States v. Provident Trust Co. · Charles Clifton v. The United States · Church v. Hubbart
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 19 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““Mortality tables are opinion evidence at best. Lacking better evidence concerning the length of a person’s life, they might be sufficient upon which to base a tax. For instance, in determining whether or not a gift tax would be due under a transfer retaining income for life, the application of such opinion evidence may be the best evidence available to determine the probable length of life of a person still living. But where better evidence is at hand, the courts will accept it, as was done in Estate of Denbigh, supra. It is easily possible that a gift tax may be payable at the time of the creation of a trust but that no estate tax be payable on a death terminating the trust. But the court is not required in this case to depend upon the Mortality Tables or the opinions of actuaries and experts to determine the length of the life of Elizabeth Nourse from the time of the execution of the trust in 1937. It has the benefit of the facts as they occurred. She lived 13 years 8 months and some days. No better evidence of the life expectancy of a person on a given date can be had than the actual length of time that person lived after that date.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority““§ 2036. Transfers with retained life estate (a) General Rule. — The value of the gross estate shall include the value of all property * * * to the extent of any interest therein of which the decedent has at any time made a transfer (except in case of a bona fide sale for an adequate and full consideration in money or money’s worth), by trust or otherwise, under which he has retained for his life or for any period not ascertainable without reference to his death or for any period which does not in fact end before his death— “(1) the possession or enjoyment of, or the right to the income from, the property, or “(2) the right, either alone or in conjunction with any person, to designate the persons who shall possess or enjoy the property or the income therefrom.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“Combined Experience Tables of Mortality,”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.